A/N: Surprise extra chapter! If you did not read the cliffhanger from Chapter 9, go back.
Angsty, with a surprise, (or three), but doesn't end in a cliffhanger!
Alright guys, here's how much I love you all. I'm still laying down in bed, Tony Kitty tucked next to my head, (I also have a Bucky Wolf, and Steve the Unicorn, they're on my Tumblr page), and I literally just woke up. I was moved by the comments of others yesterday, (and maybe frightened by a few of them ;P), and I couldn't leave you guys hanging till Tuesday. Although, your pain gave me glee... Evil and good, see, there's a whole dichotomy.
This chapter is Angsty. Capital A. Hurt Tony for sure, some Hurt Steve. Everyone's Hurt. It's a heavy chapter in terms of things being revealed. I'll put Trigger Warning, for description of a nightmare, but I think that's being generous.
Anyways! Here you all go! Enjoy! Bwuahahahahaha
Unbeta'd, and Marvel owns more of this than I do. Also, all music/movies/tv shows belongs to those that wrote/performed/produced/etc them. I use them for humor and good times.
Also, if you go to my Tubmlr page (megaranoelle. tumblr. com) you can catch some behinds the scene stuff about the fic. No spoilers, promise. Maybe you can influence the story.
Sam Wilson. Steve knew he could depend on him, owed him after all this, too, after dragging him into this mess. Counted him as a friend. But he was going to get a swift fist to the face if he didn't let go of Steve's arm. "Think it out, Cap, you can't go." Steve growled, turning the full force of his glare on the man next to him. There might have been an actual flinch, but Sam still wasn't letting go. "We have to get Pierce, and stop those 'Carriers, and you know it. If we don't, then there won't be anyone for you to worry about getting too."
Steve swallowed, hands opening and closing into fists. He'd seen the amateur footage of the highway, someone's cell phone from the about fifty feet away. Tony's suit had gone dark, then gone down. As several men had their hands on Tony's suit, the man who had been holding onto Meg pressed his gun to her back and suddenly she was dropping to the ground. Tony was fighting, but he wasn't strong enough to take two blows from the tazer stick they had. Steve still had bruises from his own encounter with it.
He closed his eyes tightly, palms rubbing at his face, and he could see them shoving Tony into a car in his mind, and driving off. Because Steve's day couldn't get any worse. The first time he saw the metal armed assassin on the roof, rage coursed through his body. He almost called Tony right then, to make sure that he didn't leave the Tower, but everything was already going to shit, and he couldn't risk being tracked.
When Natasha told him the assassin had a name, and who he was, Steve felt something heavy in his chest. From everything he heard, there was no way that he or Tony should be alive still. That didn't sit right with him. Then there was their own uncoordinated attack on the highway.
"Steve, he's going to be com-" Mary's voice got lost on the phone when the car suddenly jerked, and windows were smashing. The steering wheel was ripped from the console and Steve saw the flash of metal.
"Too late, Mary," Steve muttered as he grabbed his shield that was by his feet. The bullets started flying, and it didn't take too long to notice that the pullets weren't aimed just at them.
"I thought he was on their side!" Sam shouted as they took cover behind the concrete partition. Hydra was trying to take out the Winter Soldier as well.
"You two focus on the Agents," Steve told them, watching the Soldier jump over a car, locking eyes with him. "I have a feeling he's after me this time." Steve was up and running, shield up, drawing fire for Natasha and Sam, and drawing the assassin away. There was the pop of bomb being launched and Steve was jumping off the highway to the streets below, the fire from an explosion chasing him.
He turned in time to catch a metal fist coming down, but was throw back, tumbling on the street. Steve jumped to his feet as the man was running at him. "Should have killed you earlier," Steve heard the man say under his breath. He tried to slam the shield up, but the Soldier was moving too fast, blocking all his hits, getting in hits of his own.
"Can't let you kill Tony," Steve grunted out as they fought. This fight was personal. Steve had too much on the line to lose this one, there were too many people he loved in danger.
"He needs to die so they won't use him." Steve frowned at the choice of words, and then they were both rolling back as gunfire from above hit the streets, the shield, and the arm. Steve ducked behind a van, looking across the way as the Soldier pulled out two pistols from behind him, and was standing, letting out three shots with precision. Familiarity warmed through Steve at the motions, but he didn't know why, didn't have time to figure it out. As soon as the other attackers were down, the pistols were turned on him. The shield deflected the shots, but he was up on his feet and throwing his body into the dark haired man. The edge of the shield caught the flesh arm, causing him to drop the guns, but Steve already knew the man was a master of hand to hand as well.
The Winter Soldier grabbed the edge of the shield and Steve's feet were leaving the ground as he tried to separate him from the shield. His shoulder strained, but Steve flipped with it and threw a punch at his head. The heavy booted foot kicked out and slammed into Steve's chest, and his arm slid out of the leather straps as Steve was sent down to the ground.
Steve's eyes widened a little as he got up and running, the shield sailing past him, and ducking away just in time to miss the edge of his own shield. He felt the wind as it flew by, saw it embed itself into a vehicle, but Steve didn't stop. He was starting to regret not taking Natasha's advice about possibly having another weapon on him when he saw the Soldier pull out a knife, but again, not the time for thoughts.
"You're going to give them exactly what they want," the man growled as they fought.
"You're the one working for them," Steve countered as he tried to disarm the man. The metal arm was really working hard, he could hear the power source working overtime to counter-act Steve's attacks.
"I don't work for anyone!" The assassin was pissed now and worked with a renewed vigor that had Steve taking more steps backwards then he would have liked. The metal hand grabbed Steve's throat and lifted him up effortlessly. "They're going to use him to make more, and you've provided them with the distraction needed. You drew him out of hiding."
Steve swung his feet up and kicked the Winter Soldier in the face, and the momentum was enough to force him back and let go of Steve. "You'll get him taken, and her killed."
The metal arm was coming down on him and Steve was able to turn just enough, but reached his arm up to grab the back of the Soldier's neck and used the momentum to slam his face into the ground. He heard the heavy clang and when the Soldier moved again, the face mask was gone. Everything for Steve screeched to a standstill.
"Bucky?" He heard his own voice say, but he didn't remember moving his mouth. It wasn't possible, but that's who he was looking at. James Buchanan Barnes. The twisted expression of anger was not what he had expected though. They stood frozen, looking at each other, then suddenly Bucky was pulling another pistol to aim, but was knocked off his feet as Sam slammed into him from above.
"Cap! We gotta go!" Sam was shouting, but it was all background noise to Steve. His shield was being shoved into his hands, and suddenly he couldn't see Bucky, he was gone. Sam was wrapping his arms around Steve's chest and they were up in the sky, sirens starting to blare in the background.
When Steve saw the footage, the words from the assass- Bucky, made sense. There was a good chance that he had just gotten his friend killed, and Hydra had Tony. Hydra had always been obsessed with recreating the Serum. Hydra hired AIM. And now, they had one of the men that was intimately familiar, in more ways than one, with the formula they had been working with. Had Bucky really been working to try and stop that? All the thoughts tumbling around Steve's head were starting to give him a headache.
Agent Maria Hill was pressing a phone to Steve's ear then, pulling him out of his thoughts. "-eve? Steven!" Mary? "Captain Rogers!" Her tone always had Steve standing to attention when she used his rank.
"Ma'am," he answered on instinct, hand coming up to take the phone from Agent Hill. "Mary," he said softer this time, voice full of a lingering anguish.
"Steve, listen to me, don't interrupt. I've got people with Meg, she's on her way to the hospital. Tony's suit is being transported back to the Tower. Bruce is already working to try and track Tony, and Coulson is already calling in favors to get more eyes open for him." Steve felt himself sinking down, someone guiding him to a chair. "Let me help you take care of this, because right now, you're the only one who's able to take care of Project Insight." Hill and Fury must have updated her on everything. "You've got to do this."
"Find him," Steve said, opening his eyes when he hadn't been aware they were closed. "Find him for me, Mary." At that point Steve wasn't sure if he was talking more about Tony, or about Bucky. Everything was feeling conflicted inside. He knew that Peter would be safe, so he didn't have to worry about that. It was becoming clear that he wouldn't have been a target, just him and Tony. Steve wanted his best friend back, but he couldn't let Bucky find Tony first. That man wasn't his best friend, not right now. The Bucky Barnes he knew wouldn't kill a man without batting an eye. Even when he was a sniper with the Howling Commandos, Steve could see that every kill weighed a little on him. He didn't lose much sleep over it since they were Hydra targets, but Bucky never lost that bit of his soul in the job.
As he put the phone down, he saw Natasha, Sam, Hill, and Fury all looking to him. Steve took a deep breath then stood up, arms straight, hands fisted. "Let's make a plan."
Tony woke with a gasp, head whipping back, and his eyes shot open. He groaned in pain when he tried to move, and found that he couldn't actually move that much. There was a slight buzzing in the back of his head, but he swallowed and willed himself to look around. A cell, because of course it was. Tony felt like his life really couldn't get more cliche. In fact it looked almost medieval, complete with old bricks and stones for the floor and walls. Except for the very high tech glass wall that served as the entrance.
His hands were chained in front of him, and his chest and legs were bound, not that tightly he noticed, to the chair he had been propped up in. There was a hiss as part of the glass swung out, and someone was walking in. A familiar face as of recent for Tony.
"Mr Stark, I had wondered when you might be joining us," the German accent flowed.
"Strucker," Tony said flatly. "I was right, the name sounded douchey, and it seems to fit you." He looked over the man as stealthily as possible, but froze when he saw the Hydra symbol on the shoulder of his jacket. Fuck.
"I was very specific with them, to not aim for your head when they brought you in," the man continued like Tony hadn't said anything. "I am glad to see they listened. I need your mind intact."
"Taken for my smarts and not my good looks? Now isn't that a twist." Tony noticed that he was alone in the cell.
"We did not need the woman anymore," the man said, noticing that he was looking around. "So we dispatched of her." He spread his hands wide as Tony jerked once in the chair, clenching his jaw. "We are going to be spending a lot of time together, Mr Stark." Strucker walked over, sitting down on the cot that was against the wall. "Your friends and family will not be able to find you, at least not easily."
"I don't know," Tony said, not turning his head to look at the man, wanting to appear indifferent. "Put a fire under Cap's ass, and you reap what you sow."
"If your Captain manages to stay alive." Tony arched an eyebrow. "You have missed all the fun while we were transporting you. Captain America is facing off against the entirety of SHIELD, excuse me," he smirked a bit, "Hydra."
"He did it once before, I'm not too worried about him." Tony was incredibly worried about him.
"The Captain will find that Hydra has changed since he last remembers." Tony felt the ropes around him loosen, and Strucker grabbed the chain between his hands, pulling him up to his feet. Then, to Tony's incredible amusement, he turned his back on Tony, and started heading for the door. As soon as the door was open the tiniest bit Tony was moving, one hand holding onto his fist, swinging up, coming down to slam against the back of Strucker's neck and-
He shouted when something sharp stuck his wrist from the cuffs around them, electricity shooting through his body again. It only last for a second, but it was enough to send Tony down to his knees, panting for air.
"I was so hoping you would try something." Tony turns a glare up at the man that is standing over him. "Come now, I will give you a tour of where you will be working from now on. Hydra is pleased to welcome you to our ranks."
Steve leaned against the wall of the hospital room, curtains drawn, door closed, thankful that the night staff was quiet. Not that they'd see him in the room unless they were looking for him. Natasha was waiting outside the hospital for him, keeping an eye out, hidden as well. After she had released all of Hydra's secrets on the internet, everyone knew who she was, and now who Steve was. Jarvis was working, along with Bruce, to grab and hide other details, but that was something that Steve couldn't help with. He had learned how to use the tech of the Twenty-First century, but that didn't mean he knew the first thing about hacking.
He could already hear Tony preparing a lecture about calling it hacking.
He let out a sigh, looking down at the ground, before bringing his eyes back up to look at the woman in the bed. Steve couldn't help but feel guilty. If he hadn't of called her, gotten her involved, he wouldn't be looking at Meg in the bed, recovering from what could have been something fatal. Natasha had gotten a copy of the reports for him to look at. She'd recover, a minor surgery to her lung that had been nicked by the bullet, but they said she'd been lucky. She was asleep, had been since they finished surgery nearly ten hours previous, but her vitals were strong and promising.
Steve had been the one to go and explain to the couple who were caring for the twins what had happened, in disguise of course. He was going to have a talk with her later about the elderly couple, but they had agreed to keep the babies with them until she was discharged. He had had to convince them to do it.
"I could always get Coulson over there," Natasha said quietly in his ear, comm unit on. She always knew what he was thinking about.
"No," he shook his head a little, whispering. "Not yet, at least. We'll wait and see what happens."
"I know it bothers you when kids are involved."
"A lot bothers me," Steve retaliated.
"Yeah, but one of them has your name, oh right, and they're your godchildren." He swore he heard the little smirk in her voice.
"Let's wait and see. Feels like I'm not really in any position to actually step in on this one." Steve didn't feel the need to voice the other part of that thought. 'Since it's my fault this happened.'
"Your place or not, can't let kids get ignored. Specially not so young." Steve hummed almost inaudibly. "Security's doing another sweep, powering off for five."
Steve nodded, pressing a finger to his ear put the ear piece into sleep mode. His eyes ticked up suddenly when he noticed that there was a sliver of light coming from the hallway, past the door. That had been closed just a few seconds ago. He straightened, his whole body on alert, only to be slammed back against the wall, a metal hand at his neck.
"What were you thinking?" Steve had a hard time associating the hissed voice in his ear with Bucky, but the man was standing in front of him, threatening him again.
"Buck-" He gasped when the hand tightened.
"Stop calling me that." They both stopped moving when a cart went past the room, but it didn't stop. "You've forced them further underground, now I can't find them." He pressed against Steve with his body. "You almost got her killed." Steve's hand flew up to grip the metal wrist, trying to pull it back, even just enough to pull in a single breath. "What were you thinking dumping that information?"
"Had-" Steve pulled in a breath when the hand pulled back a fraction of an inch. Seems he wanted the information from Steve more than he wanted him dead this time. "We had, too. It was the only way Bu-"
"Don't," he growled, giving Steve a shake.
"Stop." The raspy voice caught the attention of both men. Bucky let Steve go, but didn't move away, keeping him crowded against the wall. "This is why neither of you will babysit Conor, don't need him having the wrong male influences."
"Meg." Steve went to move towards her, but Bucky pushed him back with a hand to his shoulder. Confusion clouded Steve's face at the action. Was he protecting her from Steve?
"He's a giant puppy, let Steve go." The head of the bed was starting to move up, and Bucky slowly, almost painfully, brought his hand back down. "We figured out that he likes to be called James, if you have to call him anything at all."
Steve frowned now as he moved closer to her bed. "I think you'd better explain what's going on." He noticed a bit of guilt flash through her eyes.
"You've probably figured out that he wasn't under any orders by anyone to kill Tony, or yourself." She took a breath, putting a hand to her right side. "He found me again, a couple weeks ago, but dressed as he is now." Steve glanced over at his best friend, now standing at the foot of the bed, and sure enough he was in civilian clothes. The world didn't have the face of the Winter Soldier yet, so he was able to walk still relatively safe. "I've only seen him a couple times, when I go out with the twins."
"Why?" Steve felt himself asking, and looking to Bucky, James, now. He felt detached from the moment, like he could wake up at any time, and hopefully find himself back at the Tower, asleep on the couch with Tony and watching Supernatural.
"Apparently, my former boyfriend, the father of my children before he died, used to be one of his former Handler's." Steve looked back to the front of the bed. "That's why he was following me before your visit in January. I didn't know anything about it."
"You said he was in the military."
"That's what he told me," she told the Super Soldier. "I dated him for five months, Steve," she said quietly, almost imploring him to not think that she was a spy, or something else. "He was abroad most of the time, I didn't know what he was doing, or who he was working for." Steve pursed his lips, arms crossed over his chest.
"Hydra was sending people to watch anyone you had contact with." Steve looked over when Bucky started talking again. "I," Bucky paused for a second. "I remembered her.
"So you went and found her again," Steve finished. "But, why just her?" Bucky gave him a deadpan look, and Steve was reminded of the Bucky from Brooklyn that he almost stumbled. "The babies..."
"They would have taken them, trained them to be killers," he growled. He was about to say more, but his head moved just enough, and Steve heard what he did. Footsteps coming. Bucky grabbed Steve's shirt and threw him into the bathroom, stepped in with him and closed the door silently as the nurse walked into the room.
The bathroom was dark, but they were close enough that Steve could still see Bucky glaring at him. They heard the nurse start to talk with Meg, getting vitals and asking questions now that she was actually awake. "Help me, Bu-James," Steve whispered to him. "Help me find Tony." Then let me help you, he wanted to say.
"Your team made a mess," he whispered back. "I have to stay here. They know now that there are two kids of a dead Hydra Agent. They're a target." He put a finger on Steve's chest. "Keep them safe."
Steve frowned and they vaguely heard the nurse leaving, closing the door again. "What do you mean? They're not with the Avengers." Bucky straightened and left the bathroom, whispering a question to the woman in the bed. Steve stepped out as Bucky was already moving, Meg looking a little pale.
"The grandparents are Hydra, too." Steve put his hand to his ear, turning the comm unit back on, and Bucky was grabbing his wrist. "Have someone waiting outside the house." Then he was out of the room.
Steve took a breath, watching him leave. "Romanoff, call Coulson."
Tony was very purposely not doing anything. Except breathing. He was sitting on the counter of a lab that Strucker had brought him too, glass walls of course, and he was doing nothing. He obviously wasn't going to do what they wanted him to do, and they could shock him all they wanted, but he wasn't going to bend to their whim.
Tony watched Strucker coming back towards the lab, a woman with dark hair, and a nasty glare in her eyes, walking behind him. He suddenly thought of the 'Human Experimentation' part of Strucker's file. He opened the door and allowed the woman to walk in, then closed it, leaving the two of them alone. She looked young, maybe in her teens, early Twenties.
"Tony Stark." She had a thick accent, but it was the way that she said his name that had him sliding off the counter. There was anger there, with a hidden sadness, and fury. "I have waited a long time to meet you."
"Can't say I have the same pleasure," he said, watching her circle around a desk.
"I'm told that I can't kill you." But I want to, isn't said. "But that they need you to do something."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Tony said, circling around the counter, trying for casual, and not running away. He had turned his back to her, confident that she actually wouldn't kill him. "I'm not a team player, I don't work well with others, well, there's a whole file about it." Tony turned around and bit the inside of his lip when he saw how close she was then. Her eyes rimmed in red and she brought her hands up towards his head, wisps of red energy trailing after her fingers.
"I can be persuasive."
Tony shook his head, taking a step back, feeling like someone had clapped in front of his face. He frowned and looked at the woman as she studied him back. He heard a low keening noise behind him, from something large, and he turned around. Letting out a shout he stumbled backwards as a Chitauri Leviathan flew past him. When he turned back around he wasn't sure if he wanted to cry, or throw up. There they were, everyone he cared about, had pulled into his home, his life, they were there, dead, on some god forsaken rock in space.
He saw the Avengers, they went down in battle, they fought, like they were expected too. As Tony walked closer he saw a woman slumped over, familiar brown hair falling over her face. Mary had been reaching out to someone, something. When he saw the shield, the familiar shield, lying broken in half on the ground, he fell to his knees next to the body. Tony couldn't breathe, his hands were shaking, but he forced himself to reach out, to check for a pulse.
"Come on, Cap," he whispered brokenly. "You made a promise."
The skin was cold, but he desperately searched for a pulse. And then Steve's hand shot up and grabbed his arm. "You could've saved us." He was dying, Steve was dying in front of him, and it was his fault. Steve couldn't breathe, he was covered in blood, and it pained him just to get the words out. Tony was unable to look away as those once bright blue eyes faded, the spark dying. "You let him down," he heard Steve's voice whisper, but the man in front of him was dead.
Tony pushed himself back, only looking away when a light caught his eyes. Another portal was opening, and he could see the army, could see the earth. They were going to destroy the Earth, like they meant too the first time, and he had lead them there. He would be left here, with the bodies of those he had gotten killed, those that he had loved. No, not everyone. Peter was still on earth. He had let him down, just like Steve said. He had let him down, and now Peter was going to die, and Tony would be left to rot in the darkness of space.
'Not alone.'
Tony gasped and shot up, the illusion disappearing and reality snapping back into focus. His chest was heaving, body searching for breath, and sweat was dripping down his face and down the back of his neck. He spotted the woman and started to lunge towards her, but the cuffs let out another shock and he tumbled to the ground.
"What did you do to me?" He ground out, moving his eyes to look at the dark haired girl. Her own eyes were wide, the red fading. Then it turned into a sickening grin.
"She will keep going into your head, Mr Stark," Strucker's voice filled the lab now. "Until you decide to work with us, and not against us."
Tony felt his limbs shaking, his jaw trembled, but the anger that was coursing through him fueled his glare, and was all that allowed him to push himself up to his knees. "I'm not going to work for you. You'll fry my brain before I give in. I did three months in a cave, and everything you think you can show me, is already stuff I've showed myself. Bring. It. On."
"It's going to be a long night, Mr Stark." He looked at the girl. "Continue, Wanda."
Tony didn't move, he watched her drop to her knees in front of him, and bring her hands up to his head. He was defiant in his gaze, watching her eyes light up with red again, throwing them both into his head of horrors. Neither of them were expecting what happened though.
He looked up, back in space, but now, someone was walking towards him. Tony's feet started to push himself backwards against the ground, hands still chained, unable to get up in time. It wasn't a who, it was a thing, covered in golden armor, a dark hood pulled over its grotesque face. It moved faster than Tony, and a grey hand with one too many fingers reached down and grabbed onto Tony's shirt, hauling him to his feet.
"How long we have waited for you to come here, Anthony Stark." It was the same voice from the Chitauri attack, the same smile that always looked like it was filled with dark blood. "He'll be pleased that you came to Him."
"You're not real," Tony whispered, his body frozen in fear.
"Are you sure about that?" There was a chittering sound that echoed across the space, and a shiver raced down his back. "There are many ways that we can reach you, can hurt you." It pulled his face closer, deep voice whispering with a twisted glee. "He is willing to make a deal with you, to save you some suffering for what you've done to Him."
"No." Tony shook his head, and tried to pull away from the grip of the cold hand. The other hand of the creature flew up and grabbed the side of Tony's head.
"You will either do so, or we will make it happen." Blue power started to circle around them and Tony's eyes widened.
He found himself suddenly sliding across the smooth tile floor of the lab, and the girl, Wanda's, eyes had a blue tinge, and she looked,... concerned.
"What was that?" She whispered, before moving to crawl closer to him. "I could not see where you were, but I could feel something." She held up her hand and saw a shimmer of blue swirl through the red. "You have been controlled before." She smiled at him again. "I can use that."
Steve smiled at Peter and Wade, holding onto the Starkpad. "Hi Mr Steve!" They both chorused together.
"Hey boys." He had practiced this smile in the mirror. "Having fun in Disney World?"
"Yeah!" Peter said immediately, hopping on the bed a little. "Granpa let us ride the Tower of Terror today!"
"It was super awesome!" Wade shouted, grinning. "I almost threw up!"
Steve blinked a little. "Is that a good thing?"
"Duh!" Wade rolled his eyes a little. "The ride has to be really amazing if it almost makes you barf!" Steve's eyes flickered to Peter who was nodding in agreement.
"Well, then I'm glad you enjoyed it. Never been on a ride like that myself," Steve told the boys. What else do you have planned on your last few days down there?" He was really hoping that he would be able to get Tony back before they got home. Downstairs Mary and Phil would talking to her parents on video call, briefing them on what happened, and that they were still searching for Tony, but not to tell the boys.
"Tomorrow, we're gonna go to the Star Wars stuff." Peter's eyes were dancing with excitement. "I wanna get a blue light saber!"
"I want a red one!" Wade exclaimed. "Then Pete and me, we're gonna be Jedi, only he'll be on the Light side, and I'll be on the Dark side."
"They're gonna teach us how to use the light sabers, then we can have our own fights." And as if they needed to demonstrate, the two boys jumped up on the bed, and started pretending, holding onto nothing but air, but they were making the noises themselves. Steve couldn't help but laugh as he watched them.
"I'm gonna be a young Obi-Wan Kenobi!" Peter shouted to Steve as he jumped around Wade.
"And I'm gonna be a bad-ass-" Wade started.
"Language," Steve threw in.
"-kick-butt Boba Fett!" The older boy amended his words, but never stopped the play fight.
"But, I thought that Boba Fett was a bounty hunter," Steve said with a little frown. He had only seen one of the Star Wars movies so far. Tony kept telling him to wait, that he was going to make a big night out of it, because the movies had to be done in style. "Don't only Jedi has light sabers?"
"Bounty Hunters could steal one!" Wade grinned.
"Daddy would be Han Solo!" Peter rolled across the mattress. "The coolest space outlaw around!"
"What about me?" Steve asked with a smile.
"You're obviously Episode Four Luke Skywalker," Wade responded, and Peter nodded. They both suddenly dropped back down on the bed, flopping on their stomachs, out of breath.
"You and Daddy should come down here," Peter said with a smile, and Steve fought to keep his from faltering.
"I've still got some work to take care of, and so does Daddy," Peter nodded a little as he spoke. "Tell you what though, we'll go down there again this year, yeah? Maybe over to Disney Land instead. It'll be the three of us, and maybe we can get Wade's Mom to say yes again."
"Awesome!" Wade arm-pumped, and Peter smiled brightly at Steve.
There was a knock at the connecting door in their hotel room, and Steve could hear Rachel telling them they had to change clothes. "We gotta get ready now, Mr Steve. We're going to get some dinner, and we're gonna be eating with Winnie the Pooh." Wade was already scrambling off the bed, but Peter sat up. "Tell Daddy I said Hi, and that I miss him. I miss you, too."
"We miss you, buddy."
"I'll be back in a few days. Bye!" He waved eagerly and Steve waved back before the screen went dark as the call ended. He let out a sigh and dropped back on the couch.
"Tony, where are you?" he said quietly to the ceiling. Steve wanted to put on his suit, grab a quinjet, and just start searching, everywhere. He'd kick down the door of every location that Tony had found in those file, and gets answer one way or another, but he knew it'd be useless. Steve had given the list of coordinates that had been on the thumb drive to Meg, to give to Bucky, since it was obvious that he was making himself scarce whenever Steve was about to show up. The response he had gotten back was that most of them weren't Hydra locations, but that they'd probably be cleared out by now anyway. He had hinted that they should be looking overseas, though.
"He'll find you when he's ready," Meg had told him as she flipped through the pictures that Phil and Mary had taken of the twins. "I don't know any more than you do, but he'll come."
"Did you know who he was when he found you again?" Steve asked her quietly, studying his hands in his lap.
She put the tablet down and shook her head. "Not until a couple of days before everything went to shit. I had only been able to find out that his name was James, and then he remembered his last name. I didn't get a chance to tell you."
"You were going to meet me in DC." He looked up at her then.
"And I was going to tell you then, I swear." She played with a ring on her finger. "He didn't mention Hydra until right before the attack, too. When he found me, in the park of all places, I was ready to bolt, pepper spray in hand. That's when he told me that he knew my ex, and it all got very weird after that."
"You weren't even supposed to be going out," Steve mumbled.
"My kids need to see the outside world at some point. Tony and I can only watch so much Buffy while under house arrest without going crazy." She let out a little sigh. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, about meeting up with him, or when I found out who he was. He asked me not, too, anyway. He's just, trying to remember things. I meant it, he'll find you."
Jarvis had informed Steve that a lot of files on the Winter Soldier had been released in the Hydra internet dump, still no pictures, and that he could access them whenever he was ready. Steve would wait for Bucky to tell him about it, but it didn't mean that he wouldn't look for his best friend.
"You have some nice digs." Steve sat up on his elbows when he heard Sam's voice. "Living in style under Stark's roof."
"I don't even stay on this floor that often," Steve told him and sat up on the couch. "We're usually up on his floor." Sam raised an eyebrow at him as he dropped into a large chair. "We're an item, is that still a good term? It sounds weird to say."
"It sounds weird coming from you," Sam said as he nodded. "So you usually shack up in his place, then."
"We moved date nights up there," Steve explained. "Most of the time we get interrupted for one reason or another, and we'll just sit and watch Supernatural." Sam's eyebrow was up again. "Tony says that it's depressingly domestic, but he's hooked on the show, I can tell." He shrugged a little. "We watch it up there, because we have more warning if Peter's gonna be coming out to the media room."
"Don't wanna inspire any nightmares?" Steve nodded. "Can't say it's a bad idea. Was that his kid you were just talking, too?"
"Yeah, him and his best friend Wade." He leaned his shoulder against the back of the couch. "I can't let him down, Sam. I gotta get Tony back here."
"We'll get your boys back," Sam said as he sat up in the chair. "Both of them." Steve gave him a grateful smile and nodded. "But, we're not doing anything until the morning. Unless your super intelligent AI wakes us up."
"I guess I can agree to that."
Three days. Tony thought he was going to go insane. He actually might. Three days of being trapped inside of his mind, thanks to Strucker's Enhanced. He was aware of everything, saw and heard everything, and sometimes he could break through enough to say what he wanted, instead of just nodding, or shaking his head.
The girl, Wanda Maximoff, had stumbled on the part of him that had been affected by Loki's scepter, and apparently it was like an exposed nerve. She hadn't seen what he had, dealing with the Other, but she had seen a weakness to exploit, and now instead of blue eyes, he had red eyes as he was forced to work on Hydra's Serum.
Tony found a few moments every few hours, when Wanda would lose focus, talking to her brother, where he could break free of the control. He started programming a distress beacon, hidden inside some sub-program. He had activated it that morning, and he hoped that Bruce had found the signal.
A book dropped in front of him on the desk, and he glanced up to see Strucker, and his stupid monocle. "Wanda, let him read it. I think that he has earned a reprieve." Tony gasped when he felt the control slip from his body. The chains were gone, but the cuffs were still on, threatening to give him a shock if he tried to step out of line.
The book was leather bound, well-worn, but not thin. He reached a hand out and slowly slid it towards him. When he opened the cover he saw familiar hand-writing. "How did you get a hold of this?" Tony growled out. His father's journal, another one.
"We've always had it," Strucker told him. "Read it." He turned and left the room, Wanda trailing after him. Tony glared at them, but looked back down at the journal. He slowly turned the pages, eyes skimming over equations, and inventions, weapons that had eventually been produced by Stark Industries.
'We've finally found a use for Anthony.' Tony frowned, and glanced at the date of the journal. He had been nearly five when this one was written. 'His circuit board shows immense mechanical talent. I showed it to Zola, and he agrees, Anthony will be an excellent mechanic for The Asset.'
Tony's hand was unsteady as he turned to a different page. 'Anthony rebuilt one of the car engines today, and actually increased the intake, and horsepower. Next week, I'll make sure he finds something that resembles the Soldier's arm. I don't have enough time to keep rebuilding the, and we don't have much time left to train him now, and to work on a Serum for him. Although, I'm following the progress of a promising young scientist, and I believe that progress will be made.'
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before reading anymore. Howard had been testing him as a child, had been cultivating his talent? The pages made it sound like his father had been working with Arnim Zola, the man who had helped the Red Skull. But why?
'Banner wants to wait, but I don't have time. I've decided that every night I'll have to slip the serum into Anthony's drink. Hydra is becoming impatient, and Maria is becoming nosier by the day. They want their Mechanic. I'll have to take the rest of the Serum to a different location, hide it. If we're going to use my son to work the arm I created, I'm going to make sure it's done right the first damn time. Have to get it done before Anthony thinks that he can do something like get a job after MIT. Unfortunately, the beatings didn't turn him into the obedient boy we had hoped.'
Tony leaned back in the chair, opened his mouth, and tried to wheeze in a breath. His father had been Hydra. He had worked with them. And they were going to use him like just another tool. But, wasn't that what they were doing with him now? They were using him to stabilize the Serum, with the formula that Bruce had made, provided to them by Howard, and they were going to use it on humans.
The door hissed back open and Tony's head shot up. Another scientist walked in behind Strucker, holding onto a clear container with white cloth inside. He put it on the lab counter before leaving.
"It was your father's idea to bring in Zola, to SHIELD. It would make it that much easier for Hydra to grow." Tony swallowed, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from charging at the man. He walked to the side of the lab and tapped on one of the vials holding a blue liquid. "We have your first test subject, and we're very positive about the outcome of this test." He felt Wanda's gaze from behind him, outside of the glass, and he was forced to get up from the chair to approach the container. Tony hoped that it would be another animal.
The fabric inside the container moved, and as Tony moved closer there was a cold knot forming in his chest. A soft whimper caught his attention first, and when Tony was made to look inside, he saw a baby, with blonde hair and blue eyes, staring back up at him. Inside he slammed against the control of his body.
"This is finally the perfect specimen we have been able to create," Strucker crowed, grinning as he looked at the baby. Tony thought that she couldn't have been older than six months. All he knew was that this couldn't happen, he couldn't do this. "It was a pity that we couldn't have collected a sample of your DNA earlier when you didn't join the fight against the animals, but, this was so much better." His body jerked as he fought against the control, but Strucker didn't notice. Wanda did. "Captain Rogers truly has a gift, and hopefully it wasn't lost with this clone. Don't kill it with the Serum, Stark."
Tony's hands gripped the edge of the counter, knuckles turning white, and he growled. "I won't-" he forced out. Strucker turned back to him, but the door was pulled open by another soldier.
"Sir," he managed to get out, trying to catch his breath. "It's the Avengers, they're here!" A low boom could be heard overhead, punctuating his statement.
"Get the artifacts out!" Strucker started ordering, heading for the door. He left the room giving commands, and Tony knew that he didn't have long.
He heard the baby give another whimper and Tony opened his eyes. They had created a child, it was living, breathing, moving, in front of him. And they wanted him to use it like a piece of trash, make it into another tool for them. No matter how Tony felt about the science of clones, they had created life, and this was a part of Steve. He wasn't going to let them doing anything to her.
Tony growled, then screamed as he pulled against the mental restraints. There was crack, a large pop, and he was stumbling forward onto the counter. With a glance back he saw Wanda on her knees, hand to her head. He didn't delay, scooping an arm in to wrap about the baby and the blankets, and held her to his chest as he moved to the other end of the counter to scoop up the vials. Turning in a semi-circle he reached around the grab the journal, and small knife, from the desk and bound out of the room and into the hall.
Gunshots and explosions were above him, so he knew that he was underground, but now he ran into the problem of getting out without some of the soldiers doing a double-take. "Why does this place have to be made out of concrete in all the wrong places?" He muttered. There was a tug on his shirt and he looked down to see blue eyes staring up at him. "These are not the type of people we want seeing your good looks, sweetheart. Help me find a way out, yeah?" He ducked down underneath a desk when he heard boots running towards them. Six soldiers ran by, carrying several large containers that Tony didn't have enough time to look through.
Crawling out he ran towards where they came from. "Wherever the loudest boom is, that's probably where Steve is. Steve is, uh, well, your Dad? That's gonna be weird until we talk about this. Anyway, that's where your handsome, DNA originator is." Tony blew out a breath as he found some stairs. "This is the most awkward conversation I've had with a baby. And I had a lot of awkward ones with Peter."
Tony ran up two flights of stairs before he thought he saw sunlight. "Oh, this is gonna hurt my eyes. Hang on." Reaching down he pulled a piece of fabric up and out to be a cover over the baby's eyes, but not lay over her face. "Listen, usually I'd say, make your displeasure known, wail away if the sun hurts, but that would be really counter-intuitive to escape." An explosion rocked the floor under Tony's feet, and he instantly curled his body over hers. "He's close, that's for sure." Tony checked to make sure the leather journal and vials were still tucked in some folds of the fabric, before reaching out for the door.
Except there was suddenly a grip around his wrist. Tony looked up to the other Maximoff twin, Pietro, standing there. "I don't think you're allowed to go anywhere."
Tony turned his body away to put distance between him and the baby girl. "Don't do this," he told the kid. "Get your sister, walk away while you can. This isn't-"
"We will be walking away." Wanda came up the stairs behind him. "But you are not done here." She looked at him holding the baby and her lip pulled up in distaste. "What right do you have to hold that child?"
Tony felt his back straighten, and he held himself differently. The twins noticed this immediately. "What right do you have to force me to experiment on her?" He hissed out, pulling his wrist away from Pietro. "You know, you may have volunteered for whatever Strucker did to you, but she did not. She didn't even have a right to her creation."
"So you're going to take her out of here?" Pietro looked him up and down, clearly judging him. "And do what?"
"Give her a chance at life," Tony growled at him. And then Wanda's hands were at his head again and he was backing up into the wall.
"Daddy!" Tony's eyes widened when he heard Peter's voice. He whipped his head around to look, but nothing had changed around him. Wanda backed away then, fingers over her mouth.
"You have a son," she nearly whispered.
"Let me get her out of here." Tony would never admit it, but his voice may have taken a pleading edge. Pietro looked to his sister, ready to grab Tony, to stop him from walking out the door. She shook her head to him once, he frowned, but he stepped away from the door. Tony didn't wait for what came next.
As he pulled the door open, he threw an arm up to cover his eyes and he started moving again. "I wonder if this counts as your first kidnapping," Tony idly wondered, quietly. He didn't want to let anyone else know where he was. There was more gunfire, and shouting, but it sounded a bit away. "I mean, this is a rescue, but you weren't taken from a safe home. This is, literally, the opposite of safe."
Tony turned the corner and saw three men lift their rifles at him. He froze, both hands around the bundle in his arms. They walked towards him, obviously high enough up in the ranks to recognize that he shouldn't be killed on sight. Something flew between them, bounced off the stone wall, slammed into the helmet of one man, and back from the direction it came. Tony had never been so happy to see the blur of Captain America's shield. He was not thrilled when he saw a man in black jump down from the roof, land on top of one of the other soldiers, then turn and catch the last in the gut, throwing him from the building, with a metal arm.
Tony turned around and ran, but a hand was already on his shoulder, turning him around and pressing his back to the wall. There was no defending himself from the assassin this time, not with the child in the middle. Cold blue eyes stared at Tony, but something seemed different about them this time. The black mask was still in place, but it didn't muffle his words when he spoke. "Did you make the Serum?" Tony didn't answer and the hand on his shoulder tightened. "Did you make it for them?"
"No one can get their hands on it," Tony told him, voice tight and angry. He wished he had had enough time to destroy the entire lab, to take the research out with it, but he was only able to wrap the vials in the fabric that covered the little girl.
The Winter Soldier let go and Tony and headed for the door that Tony just came out of. He went to shout at him, but Steve was leaping over the railing, landing between the Soldier and Tony. They two locked eyes, and Steve nodded, before turning back to Tony and running over to him.
"Tony," Steve breathed out, wrapping his arms around Tony. Before he could hug him too tightly, Tony angled his chest away. When Steve started to frown, the genius motioned downwards with his head. Steve's eyes widened when he realized what he was looking at.
"You're just going to let that lunatic go?" Tony felt there were more pressing matters at issue. Captain America let their would-be assassin go!
"Details later, he's going to destroy the lab and any research," Steve said and put his arm around Tony's back, ushering him back towards an exit. "Time to get out of here, now."
"I could not agree more," Tony said, practically flying down the stairs with Steve at his heels.